Northbrook man sentenced 5 years for child porn

A North suburban man who formerly worked as a police dispatcher and paramedic in Northbrook was sentenced Tuesday to five years in federal prison for amassing a massive collection of child pornography.

Daniel Berman, 49, of Northbrook and formerly of Buffalo Grove, pleaded guilty in July to receiving child pornography. Authorities said he admitted to collecting more than 100,000 illicit images over 10 years.

His public safety employment played no role in the offense, officials said, and there were no allegations of any sexual contact with minors.

Berman also was fined $85,000 and must spend 15 years on supervised release after his prison term. He will serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for release.

According to court documents, Berman was charged after federal agencies received information from Italian authorities that a website containing child pornography had been accessed by a computer with an Internet address in Buffalo Grove. Officials said agents served a search warrant at Berman's home in May 2011 and seized computer equipment found to contain illicit images and videos, some depicting known victims identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, authorities said.

The sentence was announced today by Zachary T. Fardon, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Gary Hartwig, special agent-in-charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago.

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